Softobiz

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Head of Engineering for Deep Blue Company (DBC) - which is a group of companies in Australia that are reimagining the home moving experience in ways that reduce friction for our customers, provide radical transparency to our partners and drive down home ownership costs both now and in the future.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Softobiz Technologies?

Our company was in need of Cloud architects and consultants to define the cloud strategy for modern CI/CD practice including automated infrastructure provisioning, pipelines and monitoring as we migrate to Azure.

SOLUTION

How did you select Softobiz Technologies and what were the deciding factors?

Softobiz had been recommended by our IT Director who had worked with them previously and been impressed with that engagement. In our first couple of meetings, it was clear that Softobiz had the expertise and that we could build a close partnership to deliver the strategy for DBC.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

We worked with Softobiz from the beginning of our journey in using Azure cloud infrastructure relying on their cloud expertise to provide strategic direction on the subscriptions and resource structure to achieve our needs. The stages of the engagement (which is ongoing) are: Security assessment and remediation of existing cloud infrastructure. Document the strategy and application of Azure infrastructure for DBC.

Also, Infrastructure automation to enable the acceleration of migrating existing application infrastructure. Containerise, upgrade and integrate our applications into CI/CD pipelines ensuring rolling deployments include container health scans and automated regression tests. Hardening production environments to ensure autoscaling, best practise security and real-time monitoring

How many resources from the Softobiz Technologies team worked with you, and what were their positions?

I work closely with their Director, three cloud consultants and a full-stack engineer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

We have successfully delivered our first production ready application with fully automated CI/CD pipelines and are now in a position to continue to migrate existing infrastructure to Azure. They have enabled a modernisation of the CI/CD practise that will be a foundation of all future work and I expect to see us decommissioning legacy infrastructure for the next 6 months as we migrate.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

A key factor in the the successful workflow was to create a single squad with members from both DBC and Softobiz, having daily stand-ups and working closely together to achieve our goals. Having their Director involved in our stand-ups helped ensure that key priorities and timelines have been met with the team going the extra mile when needed.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Softobiz brings the cloud expertise we need and struggle to recruit locally and work with us to achieve our goals. I am impressed that the team is structured so that decisions are made together and the Softobiz team are comfortable enough to challenge solutions to get to the best outcome for DBC. They have also been flexible in structuring the team around our needs and so have added additional resources as we have progressed through the engagement.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

Not really.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I was the head of PMO and IT operations at an auctioneering company. I worked with Softobiz Technologies for 24 months there before I moved on to my next organization.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Softobiz Technologies?

We needed someone to provide us with custom app development.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We worked with Softobiz Technologies on a number of projects, with the larger ones being the creation of a transport management system. Transport management was a major part of the business that started out just as an extra service, but has since grown to a point that it needed to be integrated with our own customized auction management system.

Essentially, we needed a tool that would allow us to sell and auction cars, get them delivered, and be integrated with the transport system.

Aside from that, they also established the DevOps capabilities of our company. In the end, they delivered a custom transport management system that was integrated into the auction system with several other capabilities for selling general goods and machinery — they used a micro-services architecture utilized in Kafka and hosted in Microsoft Azure.

Additionally, they also built a service delivery management framework and we had a managed services agreement for supporting the transport management system. 

What is the team composition?

I engaged with about 15–20 people at Softobiz Technologies, which included their CEO, CTO, development staff, DevOps specialists, business analysts, testers, and more — we also had main points of contact as well as technical leads based on each project. I found them all to be a very committed and professional group of people, which is why I brought them over to the new company I work for.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $750,000 AUD (approximately $540,100 USD) when I was still there.

What is the status of this engagement?

I worked with them from January 2018–January 2020, but there’s a managed services contract in place that includes minor enhancements to the system, so they’re continuing to work with them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

The quality of their work was perfect and we found them to be a great partner. They shared our vision and wanted to succeed as much as we did. I couldn’t speak highly enough about their management team and over time, they started gaining more and more work from us and everyone has been very impressed with them.

How did Softobiz Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

They were fantastic from a project management standpoint. Their c-level leadership is always available, so if I wasn't getting any information from the project leads, I always reached out to them. Deadlines and responsiveness weren’t an issue because I used to call them any time.

We used Azure DevOps and JIRA for project management. Within this framework, we were able to create timesheets, test plans, and tagged people on work items.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their commitment to their clients was impressive. They always made themselves available and I truly felt that they were trying to achieve our goals — the experience with every job and every team has always been positive. Apart from that, they were transparent and were great at overcoming challenges.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I’ve worked at big consulting firms and a couple of other global companies which usually have a lot of their own IT solutions in that space. Softobiz was great, but I do hope that they become a more mature company that can develop their own proprietary tools.

Other than that, there’s nothing else that I can think of at the top of my head that they should improve. I’ve been happy with them across multiple projects over a number of years and I haven’t seen any holes in them as an offshore partner.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Treat them fairly as a partner and share your vision with them. Let them truly understand what you’re trying to achieve and they’ll be committed to your organization to get the right people in place.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO and founder of EasyWebinar and other software platforms. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Softobiz Technologies?

I was looking to develop an app that I felt confident about, though I was still confused about how to do it in the beginning. Softobiz then helped me create my vision, developing the idea of our existing platform. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Softobiz has built every iteration of the EasyWebinar platform, which provides both live and automated webinars to thousands of attendees. The Softobiz team helps bring stability into the platform and turn live webinars into evergreen ones, which are streamed events that feel live but are, in fact, pre-recorded. On top of that, they’ve developed a dynamic scheduling system where people from any timezone can come to webinars at a convenient time for them. 

Moreover, the platform is integrated with existing CRM systems, so we know the actions performed during the webinar. In turn, the systems give us insights into our best customers. If we’re onboarding customers and team members, we can also see who’s watching and who’s not. Meanwhile, the team has built other platforms for me, too. They assist me when I don’t understand what I need. When I do understand it, they ramp up our development quickly, giving me a good grasp of technologies, UI/UX design, and processes.

In other words, Softobiz isn’t a one-and-done type of software development shop. In fact, we’ve had them for years. We pay them on a monthly basis to do development work, and they’re integrated into our business model. Their developers work with our support team to fix bugs. They’re also involved in new development projects, rolling in new technologies. 

What is the team composition?

We mainly work with Gagan (CTO), who directly serves as the project manager overseeing the entire development team. At present, we collaborate with six or more developers. Apart from them, we also interface with a BA, a UI/UX designer, and two part-time QA engineers. A senior developer oversees them.

I’ve also hired app experts from Softobiz for other projects, including a senior developer who’s focused on our website. He’s handling business and admin tasks instead of structuring internal products. 

How did you come to work with Softobiz Technologies?

I was searching on UpWork for developers. Gagan then reached out to me, and we started talking about what I wanted to do. One thing led to another, and they said they could do what I wanted. That was how we started our journey together.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $1.5 million on the project. In terms of investment in Softobiz, we spend five figures on a monthly basis. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in June 2011, and the partnership is ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

Softobiz has helped us turn our app into a top-of-the-line webinar platform. We have strong feedback loops from our customers, and end users love the depth of our features and functionality compared to competitors. In fact, our bigger clients scale up their business model using our platform because they’re confident in our work. Such customers won’t stick around on that level if they don’t see the quality in our platform. 

Moreover, Softobiz uses the most up-to-date technologies that make our platform agile. More users are coming in, but the developers keep the platform stable. We’ve been able to evolve its tech framework continuously, and I’m truly pleased with the tech stack they’ve used. 

Further, our UI has historically been a problem. However, Softobiz’s process of building the platform has been so great that we’ve come up with new designs and wireframes that make the experience easier for our customers. Overall, both our company and Softobiz have matured over time. We’ve refined and developed our processes, which benefit us and our clients. 

How did Softobiz Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

There’s a difference between project management on paper and actually doing it, doing something wrong, and fixing it. With that in mind, Softobiz’s project management has been refined. Meanwhile, they’re in a different country, so we’ve had concerns about communication and language gaps. Luckily, Softobiz understands that they must have strong communication to understand our customers’ needs. So far, they don't only know what our customers need; they’ve also included it in their processes. In other words, they’ve done a great job of mitigating our concerns about such things through their processes and project management style. 

At present, our communications are truly easy and the processes are nailed down. We also use different ways to track development; we do weekly and monthly sprint meetings. I talk to them all the time on Slack, where we have product meetings twice a week. They’re also in our ticketing system, and we’re in their DevOps’ Azure channel, where we post bugs, look at the development, and check our progress. 

Overall, my team always talks to them because they serve as our core development team. They’re an outsourced company, but they work for us so seamlessly that they’re basically one of our in-house teams. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re so responsive that all I have to do when we face a problem is communicate with them. When the platform is down, they can connect us with their developers quickly.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The time zone problem is one of our biggest challenges. When I’m working during the day, we don’t have a dedicated development team because Softobiz works in the middle of the night. As a result, we have to do more early morning meetings to know what’s going on. That being said, their good qualities outweigh the disadvantages. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a small boutique software company offering enterprise solutions primarily for transportation companies. We provide our customers with a whole bunch of modules or a suite of technologies that help their organizations go paperless, aid them in conducting vehicle inspections, and enable no-training management. I’m the president of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Softobiz Technologies?

Finding a broad range of talent is very difficult, particularly here in the US. We spend an exorbitant amount of time interviewing people who eventually quit, which leads us to spend more time interviewing new prospects. We turned to Softobiz to find and provide us with talents to put on our team.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Softobiz helps us with the constant update and repair of our software suite. Their team also lends us a hand when it comes to the addition of new features. Their developers work on our multiple apps, databases, websites, and full range of technologies. 

Softobiz provides us with people who are proficient in software development, iOS and Android app development, cloud implementation, and Amazon-related services. Some of the team members are also good with .NET development. However, with younger people beginning to turn away from that, we’re now using Oracle Database.  

What is the team composition?

Currently, about 15 people from Softobiz are working with us. I’m constantly in contact with their HR people, especially if we’re looking to have some turnover. 

How did you come to work with Softobiz Technologies?

We were struggling to find a very broad range of resources in the US. A lot of big corporations use agencies from India or other places, so we decided to give it a try as well. That’s when Softobiz responded to our post. We liked their attitude and the fact that some of their main constituents were based in the US, so we carried on from there. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent more than $2 million.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since July of 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Softobiz has helped keep our products running which, in turn, has enabled us to support our customers. They’ve contributed in clearing paths and letting us know if we have to escalate something to the concerned developer. 

Them working in an opposite shift from us has also been advantageous in that when a customer requests a fix, they could do it through the night and have it ready by morning. On top of that, having them take on the HR processes has made it much easier for us to onboard talents from virtually anywhere. We’ve no longer needed to find people ourselves. 

How did Softobiz Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

We manage the project ourselves; we use our own management tools and assign people to certain tasks. Softobiz works well with us in terms of carrying out exactly what we have in mind. They follow our design and change requests. Their attitude is always very good and they’re very easy to work with. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

What sets Softobiz apart is their attitude and responsiveness. We like that we’re able to work directly with their developers instead of just touching base with a single project manager. Things don’t get lost in translation this way. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

Communication is always a challenge given that they’re working in a different time zone. We could benefit from having them be a bit more flexible to our schedule since we don’t like coming in at late hours of the night to talk to them. Other than that, though, there aren’t many challenges. Softobiz is the easiest to work with of all the developers we’ve hired. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Give Softobiz a shot and be very specific about what and how you want them to work. They will provide you with a process of how they carry out tasks but will accommodate whatever meets your needs so long as you let them know. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the lead developer of a sports livestreaming platform. We also have live statistics recording and scoring for various sporting events.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Softobiz Technologies?

We were looking for a Wowza Streaming Engine expert due to issues with streams that got over 1,000 viewers. Our AWS cost was too high, as well.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Softobiz first looked at our current infrastructure to find any bottlenecks for them to solve. They worked on some CMS and coding problems and then moved on to our AWS Auto Scaling problem. Additionally, they helped with our content delivery network (CDN) to fix our server.

In terms of the streaming issues, they couldn’t deliver. Unfortunately, Softobiz’s experience was with Wowza Streaming Cloud and not with Wowza Streaming Engine. Although they couldn’t solve the main problem, they helped with our database and server difficulties.

What is the team composition?

We worked with around 3–5 resources from Softobiz, including a project manager, a DevOps engineer, and system administrators. Our contract with them was project-based, so they allocated as many resources as the scope demanded.

How did you come to work with Softobiz Technologies?

We looked on Google and Upwork for Wowza Streaming Engine experts. We found Softobiz, who had good reviews and seemingly the right experience.

How much have you invested with them?

The project total was $15,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with Softobiz between August–October 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Describe the impact this engagement has had on your business.

The team didn’t specify that their expertise was with Wowza Streaming Cloud, so they didn’t know how to fix our streaming problems. Most of the time, they ended up googling issues and contacting Wowza’s support team. Softobiz spent a lot of time waiting for Wowza to reply to them just to move forward with the project.

It became apparent after a month, and we approached them about it. It was then that the team told us that Wowza Streaming Engine wasn’t their expertise, which they should’ve said from the very beginning. 

How was project management handled?

We invited them to our Jira and Confluence workspaces, and they used Microsoft Teams internally. To check how things were going, we had weekly meetings, usually on Monday mornings. We didn’t need daily sessions because some tasks took longer. Although Softobiz didn’t have experience with the technology, they used the meetings to assure us that they were working on the problem.  

Is there anything that the vendor did well or that you would consider a strength?

They solved many of our problems with our database and server infrastructure, but not our streaming issues. Softobiz helped with our CDN and helped reduce our AWS bill from $20,000 per month to $12,000. They were very successful on those fronts. They ended up performing some additional tasks for us free of charge, which I appreciate.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Our main problem with them was the lack of transparent communication — they didn’t tell us right away that they didn’t have the necessary skillset. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

My advice is for clients to make sure that the vendor’s expertise matches their needs. If they fit, Softobiz is probably a great option.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of product for Datium Inisghts, a vehicle database company. My responsibilities include managing our services and product, as well as our marketing.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Softobiz Technologies?

We don’t have in-house development, so we needed to outsource a team to do that work for us.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Softobiz helped create a digital product similar to a website. It hosts collected data and funnels it through a model to forecast used car prices in the future. We had a prototype of that product and had used some online tools, but we needed it to be taken into a digital product. 

The team built the backend in regard to the database and created APIs and services to connect to the frontend. They also designed the frontend and managed all processes around the entire project. 

They also built a web portal to allow users to login and access our products and services. They’ve done other development work, integration, APIs, design, and more. 

What is the team composition?

The initial team we worked with consisted of two business analysts, three developers, a designer and a tester. We currently have reduced the team to three developers, and a tester part-time.

How did you come to work with Softobiz Technologies?

Softobiz was with my company before I came on board. I believe the general manager found them online and reached out to them. They have competitive rates —cheaper than any onshore companies we’ve looked at.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $50,000–$199,999. The initial project was $50,000 AUD (approximately $35,000) and then there is ongoing payment.

What is the status of this engagement?

They began working with us around October 2018, but I began working with them early 2019 when I joined the company. It's an ongoing engagement and will continue to be for the foreseeable future.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

We measure Softobiz’s success by the speed of their work. Most of the time, they develop, test, and deploy on time. They manage all of our development, and they do quality work. The engagement has been very successful. There have been a few occasions the testing wasn’t thorough enough, and we had to fix bugs, but we are pleased overall.

How did Softobiz Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re willing to work weekends and pull extra resources onto a project, if necessary, to meet deadlines. Also, our communication has improved greatly since earlier on in the project.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their design work is high quality and sets a high standard. We’re also impressed with Softobiz’s fantastic API development. The developers know our company and our product very well. We have an excellent rapport with them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

In the beginning, their documentation was lacking, but we’ve developed a good rhythm working together.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Include a business analyst when Softobiz starts working with you to help ensure your goals are being clearly communicated to the team, and being achieved.